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أدوات الموضوع | انواع عرض الموضوع |
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09-06-2016, 06:43 AM
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Brazil?s Taurus sold arms to trafficker for Yemen war, prosecutors allege
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil: Brazil’s Forjas Taurus SA, the largest ******* manufacturer in Latin America, sold guns to a k**wn Yemeni arms trafficker who funneled them into his nation’s civil war in violation of international sanctions, according to charges in court documents reviewed by Reuters.
Federal prosecutors in southern Brazil charged two former executives of Forjas Taurus in May with shipping 8,000 handguns in 2013 to Fares Mohammed Hassan Mana’a, an arms smuggler active around the Horn of Africa for over a decade according to the United Nations. The handguns were allegedly shipped by Taurus to Djibouti and redirected to Yemen by Mana’a, according to court documents. Alexandre Wunderlich, a lawyer for the two former Taurus export executives, Eduardo Pezzuol and Leonardo Sperry, said the accusations in the sealed indictment "do **t reflect the facts of the matter. "Yemen has been consumed since early last year by a brutal civil war killing thousands of people as Iran-backed Houthi rebels challenge a Saudi-allied government. Mana’a, who served from 2011 to 2014 as gover**r of Sa’dah, a Houthi stronghold, could **t be reached for comment. A Brazilian court issued a public summons for Mana’a in May as part of a case citing him, Sperry and Pezzuol as defendants. Taurus declined to answer detailed questions on the ******* case due to legal confidentiality but said it was "helping the courts to clarify the facts. "The case, currently sealed by a judge in the southern city of Porto Alegre, near Taurus’ headquarters, may draw legal scrutiny to the company, a major supplier of firearms to Brazil’s police and military and one of the top five makers of handguns in the US market, where it sells nearly three-quarters of its production. Brazil is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of small arms. Prosecutors say the two former Taurus executives were negotiating a**ther shipment of 11,000 guns with Mana’a last year when police uncovered the plot and raided the company’s ******s in **vember. Prosecutors have **t brought charges against Taurus but said evidence seized in the raid included dozens of emails showing it knew of UN sanctions against trading arms with Mana’a and Yemen but sought ways to skirt them. "Taurus clearly made use of a **torious international arms trafficker to triangulate its merchandise to other countries, especially Yemen," the documents said. "There is ** way Taurus and its employees can claim to be unfamiliar with acts attributed to Mana’a, since Leonardo Sperry testified it is standard for Taurus to do an internet search on people they invite to Brazil," they said. Sperry and Pezzuol gave testimony to federal police in October 2015 as the investigation got underway. The executives left Taurus late last year, according to their LinkedIn résumés. "All of the acts covered in the case were carried out entirely within the company and within legal limits," their lawyer said in an email. He declined to answer other questions, citing the confidentiality of the case. Prosecutors said ties between Taurus and Mana’a stretch back to 2007, without elaborating in the court documents. They said the relationship went quiet for a couple of years after the UN Security Council leveled sanctions against Mana’a in 2010 for violating an arms embargo in Somalia. The UN sanctions banned any ******* sales or financing for Mana’a, and ordered an asset freeze and travel ban for him and others suspected of selling arms in Somalia’s civil war. US President Barack Obama also named Mana’a and ten others in a 2010 executive order banning business with individuals and groups accused of contributing to unrest in Somalia. Yet prosecutors said the sanctions did **t stop Taurus from re-engaging with Mana’a as violence broke out in Yemen. Yemen’s 18-month old conflict has drawn in regional powers and killed at least 10,000 people, including nearly 4,000 civilians, according to the United Nations. In an undated email cited by prosecutors, who did **t name the recipients, Pezzuol wrote that "if Taurus decides to sell to Yemen, the path appears to be through Mohamad Manaa," adding that he had set up a route through Djibouti, just across the Mandeb Strait from Yemen. Taurus got authorization from Brazil’s army in October 2013 to ship 8,000 ******* to Djibouti’s defense ministry but prosecutors say in documents that Mana’a redirected the arms to Yemen using companies such as Al Sharq Fishing and Fish. أكثر... ??????? ??????: Brazil?s Taurus sold arms to trafficker for Yemen war, prosecutors allege || ??????: ahlam1399 || ??????: اسم منتداك
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